Is It Time for Santa Barbara to Reckon with Its Cannabis Ordinance?

Two appeals of cannabis projects in Santa Barbara County fell through at last week’s meeting of the California Coastal Commission, with the commission agreeing to the staff’s assertion that there was nothing wrong with either project — technically — according to how the county’s cannabis ordinance is written and executed.

Instead, this latest batch of cannabis-related appeals out of Santa Barbara — against a four-acre grow outside Carpinteria and a cannabis retail dispensary on the small beach town’s Santa Claus Lane — raised questions among several commissioners over whether the county may need to go back to the drawing board and revisit an ordinance that has caused countless conflicts between county officials, cannabis companies, and concerned citizens in the years since being implemented.

In the appeal of the latest Van Wingerden family cannabis grow — located at 3508 Via Real near the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club — Coastal Commission Chair Donne Brownsey said that “it appears there is a lot of community concern” over the number of cannabis farms in the area, and with issues that she said “are just a natural part of farming cannabis.”